DDR medals in the Bundewehr

[vacollector]

Are any of the old DDR medals allowed to be worn by former NVA soldiers serving in the Bundeswehr?

[AR-11]

Are any of the old DDR medals allowed to be worn by former NVA soldiers serving in the Bundeswehr?

Hello vacollector,

to say it short and clear : No. And never will.

AR-11

[pietertje25]

is there a specific reason why not? they were allowed to wear TR medals and such..

[Knuckles930]

My guess would be that they never really liked to acknowledge
the DDR, from what I understood.

[AR-11]

Yes. to say it short: the GDR was, from the view of the FRG, never a souvereign German state, and so the NVA was not a regular accepted army. That´s the reason why former NVA-officers, who were not assimilated into the Bundeswehr, were not in the status "Reserve" . Our status is " gedient in fremden Streitkräften" (served in foreign armed forces). The NVA never saw itself in tradition of the former German forces as Reichswehr, Wehrmacht e.t.c. (if I recall correctly we had a thread about that theme earlier) and the GDR never saw itself in tradition of all former German states or Reichs. GDR distanced itself form all them former German states and politics.

The FRG and Bundeswehr, on the contrary, use tese traditions.

That´s the reason why there were 3rd Reich-orders and medails allowed and GDR-medails aren´t.

I hope it helps a little...

AR-11

[SanderMan]

That's too bad.

Regardless of what you served, you still earned those medals, no? Much too unfortunate

[vacollector]

I wonder if many in the FGR look at the GDR NVA as traitors. Many of the old Wehrmacht officers helped to found the Bundeswehr. It would make sense in theory.

[delta576]

i found this link:

http://daten2.verwaltungsportal.de/d...r_ehem_ddr.pdf

Die Bundeswehr hat 1990 in diesem Zusammenhang in einem Fernschreiben an alle Einheiten die vorläufige Anweisung
gegeben, die es Soldaten in Uniform, aber auch in Zivil verbietet, Orden, Medaillen oder Abzeichen der DDR in
militärischen Anlagen und im Dienst außerhalb militärischer Anlagen zu tragen17. Auch Klassifizierungs- und Fallschirmsprungabzeichen
der NVA der DDR dürfen an der Uniform der Bundeswehr nicht getragen werden. Es besteht allerdings die Möglichkeit, nach Anerkennung dazu erbrachter
Leistungen (z.B. Fallschirmsprungabzeichen), diese umschreiben zu lassen18.

17) Fernschreiben des Bundesverteidigungsministeriums vom 26. 9. 1990, MsgNr. 041975.
18) Schreiben des ehern. Ministers für Abrüstung und Verteidigung R. Eppelmann, MdB, an die Verfasser, 5. 1. 1995 (unveröffentlicht).

greeting delta576

[LuckyStrike23]

I wonder if many in the FGR look at the GDR NVA as traitors. Many of the old Wehrmacht officers helped to found the Bundeswehr. It would make sense in theory.

In my experience - No. They didnt and dont look at them as traitors. You can not choose for which country you have to serve is the general opinon among soldiers.
Beside many former Wehrmacht officers helped to found the NVA as well.

German army and tradition is a very diffcult matter. And the more time gos by the more difficult it gets. In my last year of duty (2009) There was an official order for example that everything that remembers on the former Wehrmacht had to dissapear (pictures, awards, books, names ....).

[ehrentitle]

There is a section in Fredrick Zilian's book "From Confrontation to Cooperation; The Takeover of the National People's (East German) Army by the Bundeswehr" that talks about the decision not to transfer NVA traditions to the Bundeswehr, page 122. Basically the NVA had a totally different values system and their communist political ideology and traditions were seen as incompatible with those of the Bundeswehr. The Bundeswehr wanted former NVA members who joined their ranks to make a fundamental break with their past, wearing NVA decorations and badges was not compatible with this.

[SCHUPO]

I was in Germany shortly after the fall of the wall and studied the re-unification of the German Police. I talked with many police officers about just these sort of problems with integrating former Volkspolizei members into the force. All former VP were required to go through a one year "familiarization" training period before they could be fully integrated into full time single service. In effect, they had to un-learn the old DDR ways and learn the way things were to be done in the new police force. It was difficult for all concerned and there was a lot of tension over this integration from both sides. All the old trappings of the DDR were forbidden. I had one senior officer in Leipzig give me a DDR Schutzpolizei patch in trade for my department patch and apologize that it was not a new one because they were so short of new insignia.

[KevinH]

The paper I wrote for my undergraduate final project deals somewhat with this question. At least it draws out some of the more pointed areas of Zillian's book with regard to this issue. If anyone is interested:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...23&postcount=9

In any case from what I read and from talking to our own AR-11, West German soldiers views of their former enemies varied but in many cases it seems like they looked down on them, or saw them as vanquished that needed to "catch up" (even though the NVA was as well trained as the Bundeswehr, just differently) to the victor's standards. Many NVA soldiers had to take cuts in rank to better integrate with Bundeswehr structures and even more found that there was no place for them in the Bundeswehr. I would not say that FRG soldiers viewed former NVA as traitors, rather, and unfortunately, more like inferiors.

[torstenbel]

In any case from what I read and from talking to our own AR-11, West German soldiers views of their former enemies varied but in many cases it seems like they looked down on them, or saw them as vanquished that needed to "catch up" (even though the NVA was as well trained as the Bundeswehr, just differently) to the victor's standards. Many NVA soldiers had to take cuts in rank to better integrate with Bundeswehr structures and even more found that there was no place for them in the Bundeswehr. I would not say that FRG soldiers viewed former NVA as traitors, rather, and unfortunately, more like inferiors.

I would say that this is a fair summary of the relationship between East and West and how the West sees the East and the East Germans in general, not just in relation to the army but in relation to anything and everything DDR. Cheers, Torsten.